Brabant man hopeful after losing royal honor to clerical error

For Jos van Raaij from Sint Anthonis, Tuesday was filled with an unexpected emotional roller-coaster. His completely unexpected ceremony to receive a royal honor was cancelled at the last minute due to a clerical error, AD reports. Van Raaij was completely surprised by messages and phone calls from friends and family. They wanted to congratulate him because his name was on the list of people set to receive royal honor medals on Tuesday. But it turned out to be a clerical error by the Dutch Chapter for Civil Honors - his name was wrongly added to the list. There is an application for him to receive a royal honor, but the process is still ongoing and can take another nine months before it is complete. All Van Raaij can do now is wait and see what happens. And while he is hopeful that the application for him to receive a royal honor will be approved, the surprise is kind of ruined. "The surprise is of course gone now when the 'decisive moment' happens", he said to the newspaper. According to AD, this is the first time the Dutch Chapter for Civil Honors made a mistake.